Nuggets from a Lover of LIFE

A Picture Show

Looking at pictures has been a popular form of recreation ever since the invention of photography, and before that throughout the centuries of capturing people and scenery via sketching and painting.

When I was growing up, one still found stereopticons on coffee tables. For those who do not haunt antique shops, a stereopticon was a wood and wire thingy in which a double image (often of a travel scene) was inserted into a holder. The viewer held the stereopticon to the light and slid the wire holder until the images came together. (If I haven’t clarified that concept, just GOOGLE “stereopticon” and you’ll see it for yourself.)

During the 1930s and early 40s we had albums of tiny photos taken with a primitive Brownie camera, and also 8 mm family movies. Later my dad bought high tech cameras with multi dials, settings, filters, and lenses—the likes of which I could never figure out in a million years! Then Dad graduated to making 16 mm movies, and finally to slides and a slide projector. Slides were the “picture shows” of the 1960s. Many an evening one had to sit and watch someone’s slides of what seemed like every single cathedral in Europe!

Joe and I skipped the video cassette stage, and kept on taking photos with a Minolta® automatic 35mm which served us well right up to a few years ago with the onset of digital cameras. Now we can sit and view the cathedrals of Europe on friends’ ubiquitous laptop computers. Likewise, I can potentially bore my friends to distraction with my computer full of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Nonetheless, a picture show is a fun and sharing way to spend a social hour! At the rist of boring you to distraction (I hope not!) here are some of our family classics:

Our son, Karl, at age 13 in 1975. When Karl was younger, he looked a lot like John Denver. Now Karl no longer has a John Denver haircut, but guess where he lives: you’ve got it, Denver. (Actually, Centennial which is on the south side of Denver.) Karl still enjoys that natural “rocky mountain high” depicted in the above New Mexico scene. I think those are the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the background.

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The two on the right are Karl’s sons, Nathaniel and Joelly, teaching their 1st cousin-once-removed, James, how to be silly. It seems to come naturally, even for those of us who do not live in or near the Rocky Mountains!

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Going back many years, here is my favorite wild west character. I don’t know if he’s a cowboy, gunslinger, or U.S. Marshall, but I love him and have been married to him for nearly 58 years!

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About the same time as the cowboy photo was taken, an adventuresome kid was racing (I think it was a 2 horse power engine) around Lake Winnebago—Wisconsin’s biggest inland lake. Life jackets were something used in the Navy; we never had them when I was growing up. And look at that! We wore dresses in boats, at least I did!

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Fast forwarding to 2004, our Baby Dylan did not have his legal “temps” (and still doesn’t). But a lot of youngsters have learned to drive on the remote sand roads of the Chequamegan National Forest in the Wisconsin Northwoods.

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Now it’s 2007 in the picture show. I was supine on our living room couch—recovering from a roast pork, mashed potatoes, gravy, and pie dinner at the Phillips’ Cafe when this Sunday visitor dropped in. I’ll be forever thankful that I had my camera handy! 🙂

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You’ve seen this one before and you may see it again! Great-grandchildren!

We have 5 more wonderful great-grandchildren not featured here. I’ll publish the other five as soon as I get some photos of them from their moms.

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Ooops! Here are 2 more “classics” which recently came in from a friend. These photos date back to 1982, when we were getting hay for my sheep. Can you believe we did that (22 bales!) to a vehicle? And drove the 6 or 7 miles home?